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Africa Day Podcast
Media personality David Mashabela moderated a dynamic Africa Day dialogue with Dr Naledi Pandor and UFS Chancellor Prof Bonang Mohale at the UFS’s Albert Wessels Auditorium.

The University of the Free State (UFS) marked Africa Day (commemorated annually on 25 May) with a bold and thought-provoking podcast-style discussion hosted by the Office for International Affairs on 22 May 2025 at the Bloemfontein Campus. Now in its eighth year, the annual Africa Day commemoration was reimagined with a conversational format that blended intellectual insight with the energy of live engagement.

Centred around the theme ‘Africa’s Future: Higher Education and Global Impact’, the panel featured some of the most respected voices in leadership and academia. Media personality David Mashabela, known for his King David Studio podcast and presence on Radio 2000, moderated a rich conversation between UFS Chancellor Prof Bonang Mohale and Dr Naledi Pandor, former Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.

Anchored in the broader context of Africa Month, the dialogue highlighted the critical role of African universities in shaping knowledge systems, advancing innovation, and strengthening the continent’s global positioning. It also underscored how youth, as drivers of change, are central to building a future where Africa leads through education, collaboration, and homegrown solutions.

 

Reimagining the role of higher education in Africa’s future

At the heart of the discussion was a shared belief that higher education is not just a site of learning, but a strategic force for shaping Africa’s future.

Dr Pandor underlined the conditions necessary for universities to truly contribute to development. “Universities play their best role in the context in which there’s freedom of expression, democracy and free academic activity,” she said. “Without these, it’s impossible for higher education to make a contribution to development.”

She also emphasised that research and innovation must be treated as central to a university’s mission. “You can, through university work, make a contribution to development,” she noted, “but it has to be integral … and must enjoy the characteristics of freedom to pursue knowledge and support for innovation.”

But contribution, she argued, can’t happen in a vacuum: While government efforts in supporting higher education are commendable, Dr Pandor called out the private sector’s absence in funding and partnerships. “We’ve got to address the inadequacies that there are in establishing this link,” she said, referring to the disconnect between industry and academia.

Prof Mohale, drawing from his experience in the business world, expanded on this disconnect. “Unfortunately, businesses succumbed to measuring itself in quarterly cycles, where nations are created in centuries,” he remarked. In his view, businesses often fail to recognise their stake in broader societal development. “If they [government] don’t create a conducive environment where businesses can thrive,” he warned, “then people become opportunistic, self-centred and egocentric.”

Still, both speakers remained hopeful, particularly about the power of the continent’s youth. Dr Pandor argued that universities must do more than teach; they must equip. “Part of the role of universities is to train us in economics, investment, business formation, and really ensuring that we create powerful youth that can effectively manage our economy and ensure that we succeed.”

Prof Mohale echoed that sentiment, adding that universities also need to lead by example. He called for institutions of higher learning to embrace not only academic excellence, but also social justice and strong ethical frameworks. “We need to bring a social justice approach to these higher learning institutions because of the disparity that is very grotesque,” he said. 

 

Context, collaboration and the power of dialogue

Prof Anthea Rhoda, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic at UFS, reflected on Africa Day as not only a commemoration but also a call to both honour and reimagine.

“Africa Day offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on our continent’s progress, challenges, and future potential,” she said. “It reminds us that universities are an integral part of the African narrative, both as custodians of our knowledge systems and as catalysts for transformation.”

Prof Lynette Jacobs, Director of the Office for International Affairs, highlighted how the event’s theme resonates with today’s world. “If we look globally, there’s a move to nationalism, closing borders, looking out for ourselves,” she noted. “And that’s where higher education makes a difference, because we bring sanity and intellect to the thinking.”

She explained that the decision to use a podcast-style format was a deliberate shift towards deeper engagement. “We didn’t want to repeat what we’ve always done. We needed a new approach, and we were pleased by the turnout and how students were fully engaged.”

The event reinforced the university’s commitment to fostering meaningful dialogue during Africa Month and beyond.

 

Watch the discussion here:

 

News Archive

Historians must place African history on world stage – Dr Zeleza
2017-05-30

 Description: Historians must place African history on world stage Tags: Historians must place African history on world stage

From the left: Panellists Rev Henry Jackson,
Prof Irikidzayi Manase and Arno Van Niekerk at a book
launch and panel discussion on Africa Day hosted by the
UFS Sasol Library.
Photo: Mamosa Makaya

“African historians must take seriously the challenge of placing African history in world history, and in the history of our species, Homo sapiens.”

With these words, Dr Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Vice Chancellor of the United States International University-Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, stressed the continent’s challenge.

According to him the contest should continue to recover and reconstruct Africa’s long history. Liberating African knowledges can be done by: “Provincialising Europe that has monopolised universality, universalising Africa beyond its Eurocentric provincialisation, and engaging histories of other continents on their own terms.”

University celebrates Africa Month in various ways  
Dr Zeleza delivered the ninth Africa Day Memorial Lecture, titled The Decolonisation of African Knowledges, at the University of the Free State (UFS). The lecture, hosted by the Centre for Africa Studies (CAS), took place on 24 May 2017 in the Equitas Auditorium on the Bloemfontein Campus and was one of the ways in which the UFS celebrated Africa Month.

Scholars should immerse themselves in these thoughts
Dr Zeleza focused on two issues, which he said were interconnected. They were the unfinished project of decolonising African knowledges and the continent's positioning in global knowledge production.

He said Africa’s scholars and students should “immerse themselves in the rich traditions of African social thought going back millennia”. According to him the continent’s research profile still remains weak in global terms.

“It is imperative that the various key stakeholders in African higher education from governments to the general public to parents, and to students, faculty, staff, and administrators in the academic institutions themselves, raise the value proposition of African higher education for 21st century African societies, economies, and polities.”

“Colonialism is associated with injustice
and inequality, but what happens when
our liberators become our oppressors?”

Library celebrates with panel discussion and book launch
The UFS Sasol Library celebrated Africa Day by presenting a book launch and panel discussion on 25 May 2017, on the pertinent and current political theme of land redistribution with a comparative basis of land invasions in Zimbabwe.

Prof Irikidzayi Manase discussed his book White Narratives: The Depiction of Post-2000 Land Invasions in Zimbabwe, accompanied by Rev Henry Jackson who wrote Another Farm in Africa. A perspective of the economic implications of land redistribution in South Africa was discussed by panellist Arno Van Niekerk: Senior Lecturer of Economics at the UFS Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.

Inequality still an African problem
The content of the books are a stark reminder of the burning issues of inequality and loss of identity of those who lost their farms in Zimbabwe, a collection of memoirs by white farmers and their families. Rev Jackson gave a religious perspective on reconciliation, forgiveness and the question of land ownership, saying that healing of injustice begins with forgiveness of past transgressions.

Van Niekerk highlighted that while land issues were important, “social cohesion is affected by the economic decisions that will be made”. In closing, Prof Manase called for serious consideration of what the future may hold. “Colonialism is associated with injustice and inequality, but what happens when our liberators become our oppressors?” 

The panel discussion was attended by staff and students of the university, and was lit up by robust discussions on possible historical and future solutions to the question of land, decolonisation and political power struggles in Southern Africa and lessons to be learned from Zimbabwe.

UFS celebrates Africa Month (24 May 2017)

 

 

 

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